A small plane crashed on Monday in a residential area of ​​Medellin, in northwestern Colombia, into a house, the top of which was destroyed, killing eight people on board – passengers and crew members, official sources said, AFP reported.

“There has been a plane crash in the Belen Rosales sector,” the city’s mayor, Daniel Quintero, said in a message posted on Twitter.

According to images released by rescue services, the plane crashed into a house, the top of which was destroyed.

Firefighters extinguished the last flames of the fire, amid scattered tiles and damaged brick walls.

According to rescuers, the Aronava, which last radioed its presence at 10:14 local time (17:14 Romanian time), had six passengers and two crew members.

All eight people died, according to a message posted on Twitter, at Olaya Herrera Airport, one of two airports in Medellin located in the center of the city, from where the small plane took off.

The airport did not specify the nationalities of the victims, but released a list of their names, which appear to be local.

A video posted on social media showed a thick plume of black smoke rising above houses and the sirens of emergency vehicles rushing to the scene.

“It’s a twin-engine (type) Piper (plane) that connects Medellín and Pizarro in the (neighboring) Choco region,” says Daniel Quintero.

The plane “reported engine failure during takeoff and was unable to return to Olaya Herrera Airport,” he claims.

Medellin – the capital of the mountainous province of Antioquia, which lies at the foot of the central mountain range – is the second largest city in Colombia and is located in the center of the steep Aburra Valley.

In 2016, a plane belonging to Brazilian soccer team Chapecoense crashed in the mountains near the city, killing 71 of the 77 people on board, including 16 players.